


their song is a flower

by siojo



Series: Marco's Daycare (and side stories) [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daycare, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 21:52:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14680218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: Marco would really like it if Luffy stopped biting the other kids at the daycare, if Law would stop painting his 'patients', and if Nami and Vivi would just, please, stop playing that game.





	their song is a flower

"Luffy," Marco says kneeling down in front of him with a sigh. "Do you want to tell me why you bit Kidd?"

 

"I'm a dragon," Luffy answers baring his teeth with a grin, mouth spread wide and bright. "An' dragons eat people. But Ace said I wasn't allowed to eat people because it would make me sick, so I can only bit them now."

 

Marco wants to stand up and walk out of the room. Wants to walk all the way back home to drop into his bed and sleep for the rest of the week, because Marco knows that is something Ace would say. It's also not the full story, Marco's sure.

 

"When you do become a dragon?" he asks instead, slowly counting backwards from twenty in his own head. "I'm pretty sure that yesterday, you were just a little boy who wanted to be a pirate. Does being a dragon mean you aren't a pirate?"

 

"I've always been a dragon! But I didn't know I was one until yesterday, so now I gotta act like a dragon," Marco should have expected that look of horror that crosses Luffy's face as the sheer mention of being unable to be a pirate before his face lights up. "I'm gonna be a dragon pirate!"

 

"Luffy, who told you that you were a dragon?"

 

"My dad. He's a dragon, so I have to be a dragon too, right?"

 

Marco regrets this job sometimes, like when Sanji had made food out of play-doh and Zoro had actually eaten it or the time that Law and Bepo had taken down one of the students in another class and started talking about surgery. Moments like this where the kids are doing something they should know wasn't allowed before Marco stops them and is forced to deal with the situation all on his own.

 

"Luffy, your father's name is Dragon. Just like your name is Luffy. He isn't actually a dragon, no more than your grandfather is a fish."

 

"I'm not?" Luffy sounds disappointed.

 

"No, you're a normal person," Marco agrees before adding. "Who wants to be a pirate. So what we're going to do is apologize to Kidd and take our timeout. If you do that without complaining and don't try to bite anyone else today, I won't tell Ace, deal?"

 

Luffy scuffs his foot on the ground, the hole that he had gotten in his sock earlier while trying to climb the bookshelf stretching, "Okay. You promise, Mr. Marco?"

 

"Pinky promise. But you have to pinky promise not to bite anyone else in class. If you bite someone else, I have to tell Ace and that means you'll get suspended from coming to daycare for a couple of days."

 

"Pinky promise," Luffy thrusts out his hand, pinky sticking up. "I don't wanna be 'peneded from daycare. If you do that, I won't be able to play with my friends!"

 

Marco hums, completing the pinky promise and standing back up, holding a hand out for Luffy to take, "Let's go and apologize to Kidd and then we'll go to the corner. You can leave the corner when the timer rings, alright?"

 

"Fine," Luffy mutters taking his hand and following Marco to where Kidd and Killer, honestly at least Kidd had the excuse of it being his last name what had Killer's parents been thinking, have taken over a small section of the stuff animal pile and started enslaving them. "U-tass Kidd."

 

Kidd grumbles as he looks up, frowning at Luffy, "Are you gonna bite me, 'gain?"

 

"I'm sorry I bit you. I got c-," Luffy tugs on Marco's hand for the word he was looking for.

 

"Confused," Marco whispers.

 

"Com-pused," Luffy nods and Marco isn't going to try and correct him again. "'cause my daddy's name is Dragon, he's not a real dragon. I won't bite you again."

 

"I guess I forgive you," Kidd sighs, putting down a fish that Marco could have sworn belonged in Jinbe's classroom next door. "But, only this last time," Kidd warns. "I don't wanna be bit again."

 

"Promise," Luffy says grinning. "Pinky promise!"

 

"When Mr. Marco let's you outta time out, maybe you can play pirate fight with me. If you want to," Kidd says turning back to his game and trying to look disinterested. "We can be o- opoting captains."

 

"Yeah!" Luffy bounces excitedly. "After timeout."

 

"And you're sure that you don't want to go to the nurse, Kidd?" Marco asks calmly. He hopes that Kidd doesn't, if only because the nurse will call Kidd's mother and Marco is still trying to explain to her that as much as they would love to call Kidd by his first name, he had asked to be called by his last name and some of their students were unable to pronounce it.

 

Kidd pulls a face, "Don't wanna, mom would be cranky."

 

"Alright, come on Luffy, let's get the corner set up and we'll go from there, alright?"

 

"Okay," Luffy agrees sighing. "Ace will be mad at me, won't he?"

 

"I'm sure he's not going to be that mad," Marco promises ushering Luffy into the corner and setting the timer for ten minutes. "Don't move until this rings. If you have to go to the bathroom, let me know and we'll pause the time out until you get back."

 

"Yes sir," Luffy sighs staring at the wall.

 

Marco leaves him, making sure to keep an eye on him as he checks in on the rest of the students, stopping Zoro before he can head the wrong way to the bathroom and snatching a crayon out of Franky's hand before he can try to draw on the wall. The rest of the class is quiet, which is more suspicious than it would be if they were being louder.   
  
Nami and Vivi have taken over the dress up chest, Vivi's too large stuffed duck close by as they throw a feathered boa around it's neck, and Sanji is in the play kitchen, with Penguin trying to get the spatula because *I need to flip my pancakes, Sanji*, Marco makes a note to request another plastic spatula or grab one at the store himself if the daycare won't. Law, Bepo, Chopper, and Law's large stuffed polar bear are crowded around Sachi, dressed in ill fitting medical gear that could have been stolen from Law's parents or Chopper's grandparents.

 

"Mr. Marco," Robin tugs on his pants, her other arm curled around her book. "Can I have my other book please?"

 

"Alright, is it in your bag?" Marco asks and heads to the cubbies when Robin nods, taking her bag out and bending down to let her grab her own book out and putting the other up. "There you go. Is this one about those Poneglyphs you like?"

 

"Mommy got me this new one," Robin agrees brightly. "I'm gonna learn all about them and break the code behind them."

 

"I'm sure you will, I think I have a book about them in my desk if you finish this one before the end of the day, would you like to read it?" Robin nods eagerly. "Alright, let me know if you finish up."

 

Robin hurries back to the table that she and Franky have taken over, the large white sheets of paper that Marco spreads across the play tables already covered in Poneglyphs and what Marco thinks are suppose to be blue prints for something. He's never sure when Franky starts drawing. There's too many different things that it could be, including the ever changing ship that Franky insists he's building for Luffy's pirate crew.

 

Luffy is out of the corner the moment that the first sound comes from the timer, moving across the room and demanding that Kidd play pirate war with him before hurrying off to gather his 'nakama'. Marco thinks that Zoro is the one to introduce the word to his friends, but Marco doesn't think he wants to know.

 

"You look overwhelmed," Olvia says suddenly from behind him. "I'm here for Robin, unless she wants to stay longer? I happened to finish my work early."

 

"That's good, your exhibt is ready for showing then?" Marco asks curiously because Robin and Franky are whispering together over the paper and he doesn't want to interrupt. Olvia glances over at them and smiles, obviously realizing what he's doing. "I was thinking of arranging to come and see it with the kids once it was."

 

"Not just yet but we're much closer. There's a few items coming in from another country that I was lucky enough to get on loan that aren't going to be in for at least a few more weeks. However, if you would like to bring the children, I'm sure that I can help arrange something. Robin loves poneglyphs."

 

Robin slams into her mother's legs, Marco moving to catch Olvia when she tilted too far to the side, "Mommy, you're here?"

 

"I wanted to see if you would like to leave early? We can go to the store and get something yummy for snack time and see if the bookstore has any new books about poneglyphs, what do you think?"

 

"Yes!" Robin bounces on her toes, "Please mommy?"

 

Marco waves them off, making sure that none of the other students have gotten into anything while he was speaking, "Law, that better not be ink on Sachi."

 

"Too late," Bepo mutters, a long black line down the middle of Sachi's chest.

 

"Mr. Marco, you're," Law flusters, searching for a word. Marco understands, most of life is look for a word and than failing to find the one that you want. "Breaking the operation!"

 

"Interrupting," Marco says taking the brush and feeling unbelievably relieved when it turns out to be some of the paint from the finger painting station in the corner. "And Law, I understand you want to play doctor-"

 

"Surgeon!"

 

"Surgeon, but we do not paint surgical lines onto our classmates," Marco frowns at them and Chopper, at least, looks remorseful. "I thought you were suppose to be better behaved than this."

 

"But we have to have lines," Law says eyes wide. "We have to do an 'mergancy surgery."

 

Marco shakes his head, "You can play surgeon, but we don't use paint."

 

"Oh no," Thatch says pushing a cart into the room. "Are we all making trouble? At snack time?"

 

Marco winces as Sachi pulls his shirt down over the line, grateful that the daycare only supplied washable paint or he's sure that Sachi's father would be less than pleased when he picked his son up from the daycare.

 

The students are crowding around Thatch, taking the plates that he gives them and hurrying to take their seats until Thatch is left holding one plate and looking at it in confusion.

 

"Robin went home early," Marco says taking the container of fruit slices to give out to the children. "You have the celery?"

 

"Yep," Thatch agrees starting on the other end of the class, quickly moving through the room and setting everything down on the plates. "Alright who wants juice and who wants water?"

 

The afternoon is always quieter, the students are getting tired and slowly leaving as their parents get off of work, until Marco is left with only the children who's parents work late hours, most of whom work at the hospital. Including-

 

"Ace!" Luffy screeches, running across the room to slam into his brother's legs. "You're early!"

 

Ace laughs, looking tired as he bends down to pick Luffy up, "Early, huh? I'm glad you think so, kiddo. Did you have a good day?"

 

"Uh-huh, I had lots of fun! We played pirate war!"

 

"That's awesome, how about you go and pick up what you were playing with while I talk to Mr. Marco for a minute, okay?" Ace asks bouncing Luffy lightly. "You made a mess over there and it's not fair if you leave it." Luffy whines, but hurries over to clean up as soon as his feet hit the ground. "Did Luffy behave?"

 

"We might have had a small incident with Luffy thinking he was a dragon and biting another one of the kids," Marco nods as Ace flinches. "But we agreed that a time out and telling you were the only things that had to be done. Otherwise he was well behaved. Even let Kidd win one of the rounds. You're late."

 

It's not an accusation and Ace knows it, but his shoulders slump as he scrubs at his face tiredly, "Yeah, we're down a doctor somewhere, not that anyone can figure out who was suppose to be on shift, so I had to stay late and Dr. Water is being asked to pull a sixteen hour shift. I think she told them to shove it up their," he cuts himself off but it makes Marco grin.

 

"I'm glad that you only ended up with a twelve hour shift then. You need more sleep or you won't be able to keep your eyes open," he pauses. "And your eyes are nice."

 

"Yours are too," Ace grins at him and Marco doesn't know if Ace is flirting back or if he's trying to return the compliment. "Might be prettier if you didn't open them part way. I was wondering-"

 

"I'm done!" Luffy shouts joining them again. "Come on, Ace! I wanna go to dinner with Tia and Tio! You promised!"

 

Ace glances at Marco, smiling wryly before nodding, "Yep, we're gonna see your tia and tio for dinner. And tia even promised to make her famous pão de queijo. You know she never cooks pão de queijo for just anyone."

 

"Pão de queijo," Luffy bounces as Ace grabs his bag. "Bye Mr. Marco. Ace is gonna take me to the zoo tomorrow!"

 

"Bye Luffy, I hope you have a good time at the zoo. Hope you get some sleep, Ace, you look like you could use it."

 

"I hope it's quieter for you tomorrow," Ace agrees letting Luffy drag him out the classroom.

 

Marco watches the door in silence for a long moment, still trying to decide if Ace had been flirting, would Ace have realized that Marco was flirting, and what had Ace been wondering about? It was bad enough that he kept failing to flirt with Ace or find out if Ace would be alright with Marco flirting with him. Ace's job and the children weren't any help in that respect.

 

"Tired?" Dr. Water asks, yawning into her hand.

 

"Not as tired as you are, Dr. Water," Marco pauses. "You may be getting a call from Sachi's father, Law wanted to play surgeon and painted his chest. It was washable paint this time, but on the off chance."

 

Dr. Water groans tiredly, "I'm sorry about that. I'll have my husband talk to him about it, I thought we had gotten Law past this."

 

"I'm sure he'll get it through to Law," Marco agrees, letting her collect Law and his things before heading out, likely to meet with her husband who would have gone to pick up their daughter from another class.

 

The last few parents stagger in not long after that, leaving Marco alone in the class room, slumped down behind the desk that served very little purpose, except for his students to play hide and seek underneath.

 

"Did you fail to flirt with the cute doctor?" Thatch asks leaning against the desk with a grin. "Because if you did, Izo owes me money."

 

"I wasn't flirting."

 

Thatch snorts, "You flirt with him so much, for all that he's dense and hasn't noticed you're flirting after almost three months. However, with how the kids like to rush their parents, I'm sure that that's not helping you try to find out if he'd like to flirt back."

 

"Please don't, I may think he's objectively attractive, but that doesn't mean that I'm flirting with him."

 

"I would believe you, if those weren't the same lines you gave me when you were flirting with your last ex," Thatch pats Marco on the back. "It's okay, buddy, I'm sure that pops would believe you if you told him that."

 

"May all your bacon burn and the next shot that you get hit a nerve."


End file.
